Monday, December 29, 2014

This week was a great week, lots happening. Christmas
was the Best day this week.

Tuesday was the exchanges with the Mound City Elders.
I went with Elder Pickup to Mound City. He is waiting for a visa to go to South
Africa. We spent the day in Blue Mound. It is a little small town. We talked to
most of the people living there. We didn’t find anyone too interested. We
had dinner with the Andersons. They are the Senior missionary couple in the
Branch. They had invited a friend to dinner his name was Gormon. We taught him
about the Book of Mormon. We then meet with Keven, a Mayor of another small
town. It was a great day.

Wednesday we had district meeting. We talked about
Goals and how to become better missionaries. We all ate at Taco Bell and we saw
again the couple we saw last week eating at Subway. We went out to La Harp
afterwards. We tried some people there. We saw a pond that had a diving board
next to it. We had dinner with the Taylors. They had invited their family
and ward members to come. We had dinner, sang Christmas songs, and acted out
the Nativity. The missionaries were the Shepherds.

Thursday was Christmas!!! We had fun opening all the
Gifts. We had lunch with the Greenwalls. The Taylors were also there. They had
stockings with little fun gifts and Candy. We went over to the Patton’s to
Skype. Brother Patton told us some funny stories from his mission and Christmas.
We help unload firewood that his father in law brought over. We had dinner with
the Hannons. We were expecting there to be lots of family and friends over. It
turns out that they were all there for lunch when the Sisters were there.
We had a good day.

Friday was lots of tracting. We talk to lots about
Christ and their Christmas. In the evening we went out with Dr Guernsey
to see some people. All of our appointments fell through. We were able to visit
the Allens and give the Grandma a blessing.

Saturday we went to Humboldt, a little town that we
cover. Not many people up and going. We did go out with Carl and saw La
Donna. Brother Hannon was able to bare his testimony. He enjoyed it a lot.
We visit the Pass family and shared the Plan of salvation. We saw the Coopers
and we taught the kids they have about the restoration. It was a great day.

Sunday we had Church. None of our investigators came
to church. It was good anyway. We were able to talk with the Edwards.
They are very nice. We had dinner with the Taylors. We have seen them a bunch
this last week. We were walking to a door when a car honked at us. It turns out
to be the Porters dropping a kid off. We also visited with David. He is doing
good still busy with kids.

I
hope you all had a great Christmas. Have a great week and new year. Thanks for
all the letters. I love you all.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Tuesday we had a busy
day. We went to the Assisted living place to play Bingo with the old
people. They look forward for us to come. We also went to Sister Wright’s.
There we read 3rd Nephi chapter one with Tina and the Pattons. We also
tried Aj, he let us in and we answered lots of his and his wife's
questions. We also went with Brother Snyder to see Jim. The Lesson
went awesome. Bro Snyder was the right member present. He was able
to connect with him.

Wednesday we had District
Meeting. It was us plus the Sisters and the Mound City Elders and Senior
couple. We went over great ideas to find people in different ideas. We
went to subway for lunch. There was a couple there that the Sisters got an
appointment with. We found a couple of people that we got return
appointments with. We had dinner with Bro Slaugh. When we got out there
was freezing rain all over. The roads were slick. We were able to meet
with Scott. He was cooking all kinds of food for his kids in his school class.

Thursday we had a busy day.
We also found a couple more people that we gave “He is the Gift” cards. We had
dinner with Aj and his Family. We had some great fried Chicken. We taught them
all the Restoration. We set them all on baptism date for Jan 18th. We
also hear from a member of the ward that is in City council. That a guy we
knocked on the door the day before had called the cops and was telling everyone
that he doesn't want us to come back. We only wished him a Merry Christmas.

Friday we saw the Jessephs.
We also went tracting and knocked on a ton of abandon houses. We didn't find
many people that were home in this area. We had dinner with the Hannons.
We ate fried tacos.

Saturday we had appointment
with Brother Burkman. We then went to the Pass family to help build their
porch. It was a fun project. It was muddy but we got lots done. They had a
couple of dogs that were everywhere. Always where we wanted to be or
in the way. They had part of their family there that is not members. They
have tons interesting stories.

Sunday was the ward
Christmas program. There were tons of people that didn't make it to
church. Lots are in hospitals and sick. No one that could play the piano was there.
Elder Hansen was the only one and played for the whole meeting. It
went good everything worked out. We didn't get any investigators
there. I meet a couple that the other Elder Allen, The
McMillians. We got tons of bread from people most of it was banana
bread. We spent the day in Iola. We didn't have any of our return
appointment work out. We did get a referral for some less actives. We had
dinner with the Taylors. We will be spending lots of time with the extended Taylor
family this week. We got to teach Steven. They had 3 week old puppies
that we got to hold. They were so soft.

I hope you all have a great
Christmas. I hope you are all safe and have a great week. I love you all.
Looking forward to call home.

Love,

Elder Benjamin Allen

1. What time are you Skyping?
Any time is good. Remember that if you want to skype at the same time as
Andrew that is great but you have to be on a computer and not an ipad or
iphone.

Would 2 our time work for
you all? We have a breakfast with the Greenwalls at 11. We will be at the
Pattons to Skype.

2. How big is
the ward you are in? How many towns do you cover?
We are about 90 by 70 miles. There are two main towns we visit often. We
are like 3 hours from the mission office. We can drive for
about two hours to get to bigger meetings in our stake.

3. How many
missionaries are in your ward?
We have a set of sisters and us.

Monday, December 15, 2014

Monday was P day.We spent the day as a zone in Payola. We practiced for the
Song that we would be singing for the Conference. We had a great time.

Tuesday we were walking and
ran into a lady that we had met a couple of week ago. It turns out that she
knows our recent converts and wants to come back. We did our service for the
week playing bingo with the old people. It was fun.They look
forward to us and expect us to come. We meet with Tina and Sister Wrights.
We read out of the Book of Mormon. We read about Jesus Christ coming to the
Americas. We were able to get in with Floyd and we talked about the Bible
and the Book of Mormon. He told us over and over that he is a believing man.
After dinner we were off to the Zone leaders place for the Evening. We stay
there so we can get to the Mission office in a reasonable time. On the
way there I had forgotten to get gas. When we did get to a gas station the tank
was almost empty.

Wednesday was our All
mission Conference. Everyone was there. We had talks about our thoughts
and about the things happening around us like the Book of Mormon play. We
had an awesome lunch. It was
Chicken and potatoes with Pie. We then had an all mission picture. Sister
Anderson from my last ward came to take it. It was a lot of work to get
everyone in. We had a Christmas program afterwards. Every Zone did a
song. We did O little town of Bethlehem. It lasted until 5. On our way back we
stop at Oklahoma Joe's. It is awesome BBQ. We didn’t make it back to our
place until after 9.

Thursday all of our plans
fell through. We couldn't find anyone home. We did some tracting and everyone
wasn't interested. We meet an atheist. The evening was better. We
were able to teach RJ. We taught it at the Shaw’s. Everyone was sitting down
but still a lot was happening. We had dinner with Brother Slough. We went to
the Red Pepper. It had moved and
took awhile to find it. After that we taught the Hannons the first new
member lesson. We then meet James an Investigator that was so close to
Baptism before he got anti. Very unique person. he was excited to come to
the Christmas party. Turns out that he knows some members.

Friday we did service for
Linda. She needed help with cleaning out a shed. Afterwards we went to lunch at
pizza hut. We also went to the Library and I figured out how to put the
video He is the Gift on DVD. We took it around to show it to everyone. We had
dinner with the Adairs. They took us to El Pueblitos. It was good Mexican food.
After that we saw the Pass family and the Coopers. We watched the movie with
them. I love watching it.

Saturday we talked to lots
of people. We found a new investigator.It was a father of a potential that we found a couple of weeks ago. We
were looking for Tj but he wasn't there. He was in a drug rehab place. The
Father was grateful for our concern and wants us to come back and share a
message with him. We had the ward Christmas
party. Lots of people came. We had to use every table in the building. We
almost ran out of food. We had tons of investigators that made it. There was a
program afterwards and it brought the Spirit in.

Sunday we had Church. Not
one of our investigators came. They came to the Party and not church. There was
only one of the speakers that showed up. After church we had Bishop's
youth discussion it was on the Topic of patriarchal blessings. We were able to
meet with a couple of people in Iola. We had dinner with the Taylors. It rained
for the whole evening. Lots of water!! We were able to talk with the Kellers. They
showed us all the new toys and technology there is.

Thanks for all the letters
and the Love this Christmas season. I hope you all have a great week.

Monday, December 8, 2014

This was a great week, lots
happened. Monday after shopping and emailing we went to the Body shop. We
had to take the car is since it had a broken headlight. Before I had gotten
here the Elders hit a deer and it broke the Light. We did lots of walking
that night.

Tuesday we did even more
walking. We had service at the rehab center with the old people. We
played bingo with them and they were so excited to have us come and spend some
time with them. After that we had our weekly meeting at Sister Wrights
home. The less active Pattons came with their new baby and we also had
Sister Pass. She is the only one in her family that isn't a member yet. We read
the last chapter of the Book of Mormon with them. We had dinner with the
Guernsey Family. After dinner they took a picture of us and the kids to put on
Facebook. By the next day there were like 50 likes on it. We went to Brother
Burkman.We were able to teach him the shorten
lesson on the restoration.

Wednesday it was another cold
day. We saw lots of people. One family was the Allen Family. They were so
excited to have a Missionary with the name Allen. We have been inviting
everyone to watch the movie called He is the Gift. We did some tracting and
found some people that I hope will continue to meet with us.

Thursday we had weekly
planning. We also got our car back. It was all fixed. We were also
finally able to visit all the people far out. In the evening we went to see
Carl and Kim. I help them start their Family history, for us to be able to go
to the Temple with them. After they started they were calling everyone looking
for info to put in.

Friday we woke up early to
drive to Paola. We had zone training. They stressed the Area book and us
keeping it up to date. It was a long training. After wards we went out to
eat at a Chinese food buffet. We had dinner with the Hannon. They made
chicken fried steak. They were excited to go to the Temple the next day.

Saturday was another early
day. We rode with the Lees to the Temple. It was a 2 and 1/2 hour drive there
and back. It was awesome to be in the temple. I was able to confirm Bro Hannon
for his ancestors. We went to Olive Garden and had endless soup and salad.
I love their bread sticks. We spent the day in Iola afterward. We also saw the
Pass family. They all said they would come.

Elders, The Hannons, Elder Hansen, Elder Allen

Sunday we had a surprise
visitor at our ward. It was President and Sister Vest. There were 4 baby blessings
in a row. Both Patton families had their babies blessed and the younger Pass
Family had their two babies blessed also. I taught Gospel principles, and
we had president there. We were able to visit Bro Swenson. He told us the
same story over and over. He had a stroke and it hinders his short-term memory.
We had invited people to come to the Devotional but none came. I enjoyed it.

Thanks for all the Letters
and emails. I hope you all have a great week. All ways remember the true reason
we have Christmas. That is because of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Tuesday we still didn't
know what was happening. We just went through out the day just expecting both
of us to stay. We were able to meet with Josh. We read about Nephi and him
building the ship. We were able to go all the way out to the Crim's
house. We went to drop off containers that they had given us with food in them.
We were expecting that we couldn't stay since Brother Crim wouldn't be home.
Turns out that he was and he let us in and we visited for a while. We had
dinner with the Bueschers. Afterwards we had to go to the Stake Center to let
Elder Avey interview some one for baptism. We got the call super late
informing us that I would be going to Iola, Kansas.

One last picture with Elder Avey

Wednesday I packed and we
went by some people to say goodbye. We went by Josh. He was going out to
dig holes for post for a Chicken coup. We were able to help him dig. We also
saw the Johnsons. We even stop by the sweet shop to say good-bye to Harley.
It was sad havening to say good-bye to this ward.

Thursday was
transfers. We all meet at the Mission Office. My new companion Is Elder
Hansen. We are in the Iola Ward serving in Chanute. I hear it the closest
place to the center of the United States. It took over 2 hours to drive to
our place. I will be the Full time driver here. It was cool to be able to go somewhere
I've never been before. First time serving all in the Kansas side. We had Thanksgiving
with the Grams. They had lots of family over. Part of them are members and some
are not. We had a hard time talking to people after dinner.

Kansas City Royal's horse

Friday was a good day. We
spent the day in Spark and Erie. Visited members. There are like 50 people that
live in Stark. We had dinner with the Patton family. It was great.
It is funny how everyone is related to part of the town.

Saturday we went out to
Attona another town we cover and met some nice people. Tons of room between
houses. We taught the Pass family about Eternal marriage. We also saw Carl and
Kim, they just got baptized last Sunday. They are going on the temple
trip this Saturday so we might be able to go.

Sunday was great. This area
is a ward but there aren't tons of people. It is like the size of a
branch. We have lots of great people here. We talked about the Book Of
Mormon play that is coming to KC and how to use it as a missionary tool. We had
dinner with the Taylors. We spent the day in Iola. We meet with David an investigator.
He lives right next to members. He
had an old video game arcade plus a soda machine on his porch.

I am having a great time
here. I hope you have a great week. I love you all.